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The message from these data is clear. Closing the completion gap between Black and White students requires simultaneous work on three fronts. The first is addressing inequities in completion within individual institutions.

The second is changing enrollment patterns so selective institutions enroll more Black students.

And third, institutions where Black students are more likely to attend must improve the rates at which Black students complete.

Copyright ? 2017 The Education Trust. All rights reserved.

A Look at Black Student Success:

Identifying Top- and Bottom-Performing Institutions

BY ANDREW H. NICHOLS AND DENZEL EVANS-BELL

In the fall of 2008, over 160,000 Black students began their quest for a bachelor's degree by enrolling as full-time freshmen in a four-year college or university.1 This represents some progress: Those numbers are up 37 percent over the past decade, compared with 28 percent growth for all undergraduates. What is not captured in the gains in access, though, is what happens to these undergraduates after they arrive on campus.

Certainly, the Black undergraduate experience isn't monolithic.2 But many Black students encounter a unique combination of financial, academic, and social challenges that can make the path to degree completion rugged. Increasing college costs have a disproportionate impact on Black students' ability to pay, contributing to the accumulation of higher debt levels compared with peers.3 Damning inequities in K?12 education mean that too many Black students leave high school without acquiring the skills they need to immediately succeed in postsecondary education and are placed in developmental, noncredit courses.4 As if these hurdles weren't high enough, the constant barrage of racist incidents on many college campuses make it quite clear that on-campus racism is still an issue Black students have to deal with -- and chilly or hostile campus racial climates have been found to have negative effects on Black student outcomes.5

Figure 1: Six Year Graduation Rates at Four Year Institutions (2014)

Overall Asian/Pacific Islander Black Hispanic Native American White

100%

80%

70.6% 59.6%

60%

53.5%

63.2%

40.9%

41.0%

40%

20%

0

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, Fall 2008 starting cohort. Table 326.10

Given these challenges, how successful are Black undergraduates in their quest to earn bachelor's degrees?

Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that nearly 41 percent of first-time, full-time Black students who enrolled at four-year institutions in the fall of 2008 earned a degree within six years. This was the lowest rate among all racial and ethnic groups, approximately 22 percentage points below the graduation rate for White students (Figure 1).

But what happens if you dig underneath the national average and look at the institutional data? Do graduation rates for Black students at most institutions lag those of White students by roughly 22 points?

In this report, as in others our team has done over the years, we look beyond national averages to understand and highlight patterns in student success at four-year institutions. We identify top-performing colleges and universities from which other institutions could potentially learn a great deal, as well as underperforming institutions that need to get far more serious about success rates for their Black students. Once again, we find that what institutions do matters: Some colleges are far more successful than otherwise similar ones in enrolling and graduating Black students.

ABOUT THIS REPORT

This report examines graduation rates for Black students and the completion gap between Black and White students at all nonspecialized public and private nonprofit institutions, as well as four-year, for-profit institutions. Together, these institutions -- roughly 84 percent of all four-year institutions -- enroll over 90 percent of Black first-time, full-time students. In separate sections, we discuss what the data tell us about graduation outcomes for Black students at historically Black colleges and universities and at for-profit institutions. The bulk of our analysis, however, focuses on success rates at the 676 traditional public and private nonprofit colleges and universities that enroll nearly 60 percent of Black first-time, full-time students. Among those institutions, we highlight both the top-performing and the bottom-performing. In addition, using data from College Results Online (), we showcase outcome differences between similar colleges that enroll the same types of students.

Andrew Howard Nichols, Ph.D., is director of higher education research and data analytics, and Denzel Evans-Bell was a higher education research analyst at The Education Trust.

THE EDUCATION TRUST | A LOOK AT BLACK STUDENT SUCCESS | MARCH 2017 1

SUCCESS PATTERNS IN TRADITIONAL PUBLIC AND PRIVATE NONPROFIT INSTITUTIONS

The graduation rate for Black students at the 676 traditional (we did not include HBCUs or specialized institutions) public and private nonprofit institutions in our sample is 45.4 percent, 19.3 points lower than the 64.7 percent graduation rate for White students.6 But among Black and White students who attend the same institutions, the average gap is just 13.5 percentage points (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Gaps in Graduation Rates Between Black and White Students by percentage points (2014)

Institutional average National average

percentage points

25

20

19.3

15

13.5

10

18.5 12.2

22.7 15.1

5

0

All Institutions

Public

Private Nonprofit

Notes: Analysis includes 676 institutions (362 public and 314 private nonprofit). Only non-HBCU, non-specialized institutions with 30 students in both Black and White cohorts were included. Source: Education Trust's analysis of IPEDS Graduation Rate Survey

Figure 3: Closing the Gaps in Six-Year Grad Rates Between Black and White Students (2014)

If gap closed by...

50%

100%

Average Institutional

Grad Rate for Black Students

Grad Rate Gap (percentage points)

45.2% 13.5

52.1% 6.6

59.1% -0.4*

National

Grad Rate for Black Students

Grad Rate Gap (percentage points)

45.4% 19.3

51.8% 13.0

58.1% 6.6

Number of Additional Black Bachelor's Degree Completers 5,996

11,992

*To simulate gap-closing, Black graduation rates at institutions where White students graduated at higher rates than Black students were adjusted so that the Black graduation rate was equivalent to the White graduation rate. Graduation rates at institutions where Black students are currently graduating at higher rates than White students were not adjusted. As a result, the final gap (-0.4) reflects a slightly higher graduation rate for Black students. Notes: Analysis includes 676 institutions (362 public and 314 private nonprofit). Only non-HBCU, non-specialized institutions with 30 students in both Black and White cohorts were included. Source: Education Trust's analysis of IPEDS Graduation Rate Survey

Why is the average institutional gap only two-thirds as large as the national cross-institutional gap? Simply because the national gap is more than the accumulation of all the individual graduation rate gaps between Black and White students at institutions; the remainder comes from differential enrollment patterns.

Stated differently, if the graduation rate for Black students were equal to the current graduation rate for White students at each institution where a gap exists, the national graduation rate for Black students would still lag behind the national rate for White students. Eliminating institutional gaps at each campus in our sample would produce an additional 11,992 Black graduates, and would reduce the national gap in Black and White completion from 19.3 percentage points to 6.6 percentage points (Figure 3). These remaining 6.6 percentage points are the result of divergent enrollment patterns between Black and White students. Far too few Black students attend selective institutions, which typically have higher graduation rates, and far too many end up at the least selective institutions, where few students complete in six years.

The message from these data is clear. Closing the completion gap between Black and White students requires simultaneous work on three fronts. The first is addressing inequities in completion within individual institutions. The second is changing enrollment patterns so selective institutions enroll more Black students. And third, institutions where Black students are more likely to attend must improve the rates at which Black students complete.

The data in Figure 4 illustrate the nature and extent of the latter challenges, showing enrollment patterns and graduation rates for first-time, full-time Black and White students by SAT quartile for the institutions in our study. The data show considerable enrollment stratification, with Black freshmen less likely to enroll at institutions where most freshmen graduate and more likely to enroll at institutions where few do. About 25 percent of Black freshmen enroll at the most selective institutions (quartile 4) compared with nearly 40 percent of White freshmen. On the other end of the spectrum, roughly 1 in 5 Black freshmen enroll at the least selective schools (quartile 1) compared with fewer than 1 in 10 White freshmen. Colleges in this quartile have an average graduation rate of roughly 30 percent for Black students and approaching 45 percent for White students.

2 THE EDUCATION TRUST | A LOOK AT BLACK STUDENT SUCCESS | MARCH 2017

Figure 4: Enrollment and Six-Year Graduation Rates at Institutions by SAT Quartile (2014)

Black Freshmen Black Grad

Enrolled

Rate

Quartile 4 (Highest SAT

Scores)

25.6%

70.2%

White Freshmen White Grad

Enrolled

Rate

80.5%

39.8%

Quartile 3 27.7%

46.0%

Quartile 2 27.1%

36.0%

28.7%

59.9%

Quartile 1 19.6%

30.9%

22.2% 9.3%

52.0% 44.5%

Notes: Analysis includes 631 institutions. Only non-HBCU, non-specialized institutions with average SAT scores in College Results Online and with 30 students in both Black and White cohorts were included. The quartiles were: Q1) =990 (n=151), Q2) >990 and =1050 (n=159), Q3) >1050 and =1146 (n=162), Q4) >1146 (n=159). Source: Education Trust's analysis of IPEDS Graduation Rate Survey

When examining these same data from a different perspective, the effect of enrollment stratification becomes even more apparent (Figure 5). As selectivity decreases, the percentage of Black freshmen at these institutions increases. Only 5.9 percent of freshmen at the selective colleges and universities in quartile 4 are Black compared with 15.7 percent of freshmen at the least selective institutions in quartile 1. However, White freshmen only make up about 54 percent of freshmen at institutions in quartile 1, despite accounting for nearly two-thirds at the institutions in each of the other quartiles.

Certainly, some of these enrollment differences between Black and White students can be linked to differences in academic preparation, as Black K?12 students are more likely than their White counterparts to attend underfunded schools, be taught by inexperienced and out-of-field teachers, and be assigned less rigorous coursework.7 However, there is a growing body of evidence that attributes some of this enrollment stratification to undermatching, a pattern where high-performing, lowincome, and underrepresented minority students tend to apply to and attend colleges that are below their academic qualifications.8 Clearly, this pattern deserves attention -- from both high schools and colleges.

Figure 5: Enrollment and Six-Year Graduation Rates Within SAT Quartile (2014)

Quartile 4 (Highest SAT Scores) Total Freshmen: 390,072 Total Black Freshmen: 23,010 Total Institutions: 159

5.9% 28.5%

65.6%

Average Institutional Graduation Rates

70.2% 80.5%

Black White Other

Quartile 3 Total Freshmen: 275,559 Total Black Freshmen: 24,849

Total Institutions: 162

9.0% 23.9%

67.1%

46.0% 59.9%

Black White Other

Quartile 2 Total Freshmen: 211,568 Total Black Freshmen: 24,332

Total Institutions: 159

11.5% 21.0%

67.5%

36.0% 52.0%

Black White Other

Quartile 1 (Lowest SAT Quartile) Total Freshmen: 112,020 Total Black Freshmen: 17,626 Total Institutions: 151

15.7% 30.7%

53.6%

30.9% 44.5%

Black White Other

Notes: Analysis includes 631 institutions. Only non-HBCU, non-specialized institutions with average SAT scores in College Results Online and with 30 students in both Black and White cohorts were included. The quartiles were: Q1) 990 (n=151) Q2) >990 and 1050 (n=159) Q3) >1050 and 1146 (n=162) Q4) >1146 (n=159) Source: Education Trust's analysis of IPEDS Graduation Rate Survey

TOP- AND BOTTOM-PERFORMING INSTITUTIONS FOR BLACK STUDENTS

As noted earlier, the average institutional difference in graduation rates for Black and White students in our sample is quite large (13.5 percentage points). But these disparities vary widely across institutions. While some institutions have small or no gaps, far too many have gaps that are much, much larger than average (Figure 6).

On the positive end, nearly 22 percent of colleges and universities have completion gaps at or below 5 percentage points. Among institutions with small or no gaps, 55 colleges and universities are graduating Black students at equal rates -- if not higher rates -- than White students.

THE EDUCATION TRUST | A LOOK AT BLACK STUDENT SUCCESS | MARCH 2017 3

WHY WE LOOK AT GRADUATION RATE GAPS BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE STUDENTS

In K-12 education, we have a fairly robust set of indicators for monitoring results for all groups of students, including indicators of achievement (e.g., test performance, advanced courses successfully completed) and graduation rates. Looking at both turns out to be important, especially to make sure that test performance isn't going up simply because more students are being pushed out. In higher education, publicly available data are much more limited: There are no consistent measures that show how much students learn or what competencies they acquire while enrolled at colleges and universities; we have only a lessthan-perfect database -- called IPEDS -- that reports year-to-year persistence and four-, five-, and six-year degree completion rates for first-time, full-time students. Although the imperfections of the federal graduation rates are well chronicled, these rates actually provide the best and most comprehensive insights into how effective institutions are at helping students persist from matriculation to degree completion.9 And while what students learn along the path to a degree undoubtedly matters, whether they get that degree is absolutely critical, especially in the current economic climate.

As our work has repeatedly shown throughout the years, graduation rates differ for different subgroups of students. Though the rates for each group -- and their progress over time -- are intrinsically important, readers often want to know how they compare for students from different racial and economic backgrounds. Typically, we do this by comparing the graduation rates of Black, Latino, and Native students (when their data are available) to those of White students.

Some critics have argued that this approach reinforces Whiteness as the standard, focusing less on the need to improve outcomes for people of color regardless of how well White students are doing. We certainly appreciate that perspective. But the truth is that we haven't found a workable alternative.

If, for example, graduation rates for Black students were compared with the graduation rates of all students at an institution (i.e., the overall graduation rate), the gap or difference could be understated since completion rates for Black students are often lower and would be included in the institution's graduation rate for all students. An approach like this also includes (in the overall graduation rate) the graduation rates for Latino students and Native students, who are also traditionally underrepresented and underserved populations. This, too, can have the effect -- especially in institutions with large numbers of underrepresented students -- of understating differences and making those institutions look better than they are.

Figure 6: Distribution of Institutions and Black Freshmen by Graduation Rate Gap (2014)

(Average Institutional Gap: 13.5)

Grad Rate Gap > 20 15 < Grad Rate Gap ................
................

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